Fury

bite [someone’s] head off To answer curtly or sharply out of anger or annoyance, to snap at in reply; also to bite or snap [someone’s] nose off. Although the nose was apparently the original object of the biting or snapping in this expression (predating head by nearly three centuries) head is more commonly heard today.

I … ask’d him if he was at leisure for his chocolate, … but he snap’d my nose off; no, I shall be busy here these two hours. (Susanna Centlivre, The Busybody, 1709)

blow a fuse To lose one’s temper; to become angry or violent; to respond emotionally and dramatically. These figurative meanings of blow a fuse allude to the fact that a fuse will blow if there is an overload on an electrical circuit. By the same token, a person can only stand so much before “reaching the breaking point” and “blowing up.”

To have or be on a short fuse is to be short-tempered, to be quick to blow a fuse.

blow a gasket To lose one’s temper. When the gasket sealing an automobile cylinder wears out, pressure in the cylinder cannot be contained and the contents spurt out. So too, when life is not running smoothly and patience has worn thin, the result is often uncontrollable, angry outbursts.

blow off steam To discharge suppressed feelings, especially resentment; to release tension by loud talking or shouting. This phrase alludes to actual steam engines, boilers, etc., which allow pressure to build up to a certain point, after which it is released forcibly and noisily. Figurative use of the phrase dates from the early 19th century.

The widow … sat … fuming and blowing off her steam. (Frederick Marryat, The Dog-Fiend, 1837)

blow one’s stack To be unable to contain one-self; to lose control. As a smokestack discharges smoke and soot, a fired-up person gives vent to angry, resentful words.

blow one’s top To lose control; to fly off the handle; to be unable to contain one-self; also blow one’s lid. This slang phrase plays on an analogy comparing the top of one’s head to a lid. When a container is about to burst because of the internal pressure, the lid will fly off to allow the pressure to escape. Similarly, when one can no longer bear the pressure of intense emotions building up, one “loses one’s head.”

He blew his top and lost his job and came bellyaching to Loraine. (John Steinbeck, The Wayward Bus, 1947)

duck-fit An outburst or fit of anger, a conniption fit. This American slang term, in use since at least 1900, is probably an allusion to the loud quacking of a mad duck.

fly off the handle To become furious, often suddenly and without warning; to lose self-control. The tendency of an ax blade to fly off its handle when forcefully struck against an object is the apparent origin of this expression. The current use of the phrase is almost exclusively in reference to loss of temper.

He reckoned you would … get good and mad, fly off the handle … (C. E. Mulford, Orphan, 1908)

hit the ceiling To be enraged, agitated, or violently angry; to lose one’s temper, to blow one’s top. This slang expression dates from the early 1900s. Currently, hit the roof is a frequently employed variant.

Larry hit the ceiling and said he had to come along, that he’d spoil everything if he didn’t. (E. Dundy, Dud Avocado, 1958)

slow burn Gradual intensification of anger; escalation from a low level of displeasure to a high pitch of rage. This originally U.S. colloquial phrase dates from the early 1900s. Wentworth and Flexner (Dictionary of American Slang) attribute the phrase to the 1930s comedian Leon Carroll who was apparently well known for his facial expression of that name. Slow burn referred to the gradual reddening of his face as he took on the image of an enraged man.

His slow burn at a Minnesota prof’s constant use of the name when he was a student…. (New Yorker, March 3, 1951)

savageness, savagery - the property of being untamed and ferocious; "the coastline is littered with testaments to the savageness of the waters"; "a craving for barbaric splendor, for savagery and color and the throb of drums"

and at the same instant rose from her chair with a knife in her hand, with which, most probably, she would have executed very tragical vengeance, had not the girl taken the advantage of being nearer the door than her mistress, and avoided her fury by running away: for, as to the poor husband, whether surprize had rendered him motionless, or fear (which is full as probable) had restrained him from venturing at any opposition, he sat staring and trembling in his chair; nor did he once offer to move or speak, till his wife, returning from the pursuit of Jenny, made some defensive measures necessary for his own preservation; and he likewise was obliged to retreat, after the example of the maid.

But this fury had vented itself most fully on the two brothers when they were overtaken by the murderers, thanks to the precaution which William -- the man of precautions -- had taken in having the gates of the city closed.

The mounted knights, whose lances had been almost all broken by the fury of the encounter, were now closely engaged with their swords, shouting their war-cries, and exchanging buffets, as if honour and life depended on the issue of the combat.

In his behaviour to me he was a perfect tyrant, he spoke very little to me, and if he chanced to glance at me he gave me a firm, majestically self-confident and invariably ironical look that drove me sometimes to fury.

The Myrmidons were struck with awe, and none dared look full at it, for they were afraid; but Achilles was roused to still greater fury, and his eyes gleamed with a fierce light, for he was glad when he handled the splendid present which the god had made him.

All at once, at the moment when the wheel in its revolution presented to Master Pierrat, the humped back of Quasimodo, Master Pierrat raised his arm; the fine thongs whistled sharply through the air, like a handful of adders, and fell with fury upon the wretch's shoulders.

Jealousy, fury, offended pride, all the passions in short that dispute the heart of an outraged woman in love, urged her to make a revelation; but she reflected that she would be totally lost if she confessed having assisted in such a machination, and above all, that D'Artagnan would also be lost to her forever.

The dark and fearful sea of the subtle Ulysses' wanderings, agitated by the wrath of Olympian gods, harbouring on its isles the fury of strange monsters and the wiles of strange women; the highway of heroes and sages, of warriors, pirates, and saints; the workaday sea of Carthaginian merchants and the pleasure lake of the Roman Caesars, claims the veneration of every seaman as the historical home of that spirit of open defiance against the great waters of the earth which is the very soul of his calling.

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